It's been an interesting journey, and I am not yet at my destination.  But I believe I can get there.

I am well used to sticking to healthy portions and not letting others serve me more than I need.  I no longer look at chocolate and icecream with yearning.  I don't crave sweet things and I am used to eating fat-free unsweetened yoghurt -- sometimes with muesli or sunflower seeds or a few dried cranberries for variety.  I am wondering whether to make a Christmas cake -- my annual ritual -- as my husband is prediabetic and cannot eat it, my son doesn't like English fruit cake/Christmas cake and if I eat it on my own it will take until Christmas 2010 to finish it!!!

I am now 30lbs lighter than I was in March 2009.  I am also two full sizes smaller -- my size 18 pants were getting far too tight, but this weekend I purchased three pairs of size 14 pants to face the coming winter. I have a waist for the first time in years and look good in tailored shirts -- having hidden behind XXL tee-shirts for more than 8 years, seeing myself in a tailored shirt is amazing!

It's not been a steady path, though.  For nearly 10 weeks my weight was static:  I did actually keep a food diary ad count calories for 3 weeks to try and work out why I wasn;t losing.  It wasn;t becuase I was eating too much I was almost always just under 1400 Calories.  

I have been increasing my fitness -- starting out walking 1 mile in my neighborhood, increasing to 2 miles, and then starting to increase my route outside my neighborhood upto my present route which is more than 3 miles.  As I increased from 2 to 3 miles I found my legs wanted to run intervals during my walk.  Amazingly the running intervals became jogging with walking intervals, and then jogging the full route.  I recently increased my route but ran the full increased length from the getgo -- it's actually easier to go at my present speed than it is to walk.  On the occasions when my husband accompanies me, and I have to go slower, I am much achier.  I would never have believed that I could run more than 3 miles every morning when I first started exercising in March 2009. 

However, I have learned that a morning run is not enough to sustain weight loss.  My lifestyle was far too sedentary for the rest of the day.  I work at home when I am not on overseas business trips, and work at the kitchen table.  My fingers on the keyboard do not burn up many calories and it is just basically too unhealthy to sit in one place all day. 

So, I now get up and walk around and lift my weights for a few minutes every hour if I don't have anything more energetic to do.  Mind you,I have had a lot of energetic activity since the summer -- we had had our kitchen remodeled and I had to pack up all the things before the kithce was tripped out and then line the shelves and replace everything in it's new home since the new kitchen has been installed.  I am also more than threee quarters of the way through sorting out stored boxes in our garage -- we need to bring the car in over the winter and so that has been my impetus to go through the boxes and either shelve that which is useful or recycle that which isn't -- mostly the boxes are full of my old office papers from when I worked full time in an office.

In September I was working in Ethiopia and the weight started falling off again -- must have been the increased all day activity levels.  I had to exercise in the hotel gym -- I didn't like running on a treadmill at all!!!!  It wasn't just that I was surrounded by Ethiopians who run long distances effortlessly -- although that was a factor -- it was just the sheer grind of having to stick exactly to the treadmill speed without the small variations that I presumably have when jogging round my neighborhood; and the boredom of the never changing view from the treadmill.  I am so happy to be back home and jogging round my neighborhood oat one with nature and noting the changes that occured while I was away. 

And I am pleased that I have lost 30 pounds and become so much fitter over the last 6 months.  I hope that my next journal entry will be when I have made my target of 55lbs lost -- I still have 25lbs to go, at the moment!